Using filters and labels to organize Receptive notifications in your Gmail inbox

By default, Receptive sends email notifications to your team each time:

A new request is created in your Receptive account

A request has changed status

A request has been commented on

These notifications are important for you to stay on top of what's happening whether you're in Sales, Support, Product, Dev, etc. But, if you receive dozens of requests each week we recommend having a process for reviewing new requests so your inbox stays clear.

If you use Gmail, it just takes a minute or two to set up filters and labels so you can review your new requests when you're ready.

How to set them up

Depending on your role, different types of notifications will be more or less important to you. We recommend setting up a main label (Receptive Activity) which contains three sub-labels so you can instantly identify what type of activity is coming in.

Create your first filter

If you have white label email set up, you'll replace "support@receptive.io" with your custom email address.

From the top search box in your gmail, click the down arrow to show search options and enter the following filters:

From: support@receptive.io

Subject: "New feature request"

Hit the magnifying glass to make sure the filter is set up correctly and you're ONLY filtering Receptive notifications.

If it's correctly configured, click the drop down arrow in the search box again and select "Create filter with this search >>"

Create & apply labels

Click "Choose label" next to "Apply the label".

Select "New label" and create a label called "Receptive Activity". (You can number your labels so you're able to control which order they appear in.)

Create another label "New feature request" and nest it under "Receptive Activity."

Following the process above, create a new label for this filter under "Receptive Activity" called "Changed status".

Create a third filter for comments on features:

From: support@receptive.io

Subject: "New comment on a feature you are subscribed to"

Again, following the process above create a new label under "Receptive Activity" called "New comment".

Mailbox settings

Make sure you can easily see / access your labels on the left side of your Gmail inbox. After a few days, if you're sure your filters are configured correctly, go ahead and hide the labels when they don't have unread mail in them.

To do this, click the tiny arrow to the right of "Receptive Activity" and select "Show if unread" under "In label list".

Warning: make sure you check the contents of each label regularly!

There are two reasons for this:

In the beginning you want to make sure they're set up correctly. Gmail filters can get confused and they might not always act as you think they will.

Even if your filters are tried & tested, sometimes gmail combines multiple emails together and some unrelated mail that shouldn't be filtered, does get filtered.

If certain notifications aren't relevant to your role, you can unsubscribe from a specific type by clicking "Manage email preferences" at the bottom of each email. More on that here.